In the churches that I end up working in/for.
The church in Halifax that I worked at while in Dal was an inner-city missions church that worked directly with & for homeless men. While I didn't agree with everything that the church did, I did agree that they were at least trying...hard...and making some in-roads.
For the most part, I enjoyed my time there. I never felt ill-at-ease around the workings of the church. Often times in the winter, I would go to choir practice on Thursday nights, put on a pot of coffee and let the guys and gals come in off the street to warm up a bit and grab a hot cup of coffee. They appreciated it immensely and I thought then and still beleive to this day that I was actually more protected because of it...some times when I didn't have a ride home with one of the choir members, they would walk me past Gottigen to the commons to make sure that I could get home safely.
I didn't know their names, but there are a few that I remember still...fondly.
I was at St. Marks for 4.5 years. That church was so not an inner-city church, nor did it cater to missions or needs of others. That is a church that is comprised of a lot of people that would not step foot in to a room that had a dirty, smelly street person. They would ask them to leave and certainly wouldn't have made them coffee! It may have changed since I left, but during the time I was there, they wouldn't have allowed them in the sanctuary.
I realized this week that I am in a similar situation again with the church that I have agreed to tend the music in. It is definitely an "inner-city" church and it is making an effort to be a missions church. They started a program almost 2 years ago where they have lunch on Fridays for the high schoolers uptown. Flapjacks & bacon. While not all the teens that go there are needy, they are at least bringing in some teens in to a church. This was prompted because there was a core group of teens who was doing drugs at the back door of the church. They wanted to talk to the kids, but they wouldn't come in. The only way they would come in was for coffee and/or food.
This past Sunday morning while I was getting ready for mornign service around 9:50am, there was screaming and shouting from the back of the church. The minister & I were chatting and the janitor came in to ask the minister to go with him out back as there was a man and I woman going at each other. He said they were "e-tards". I knew exactly what he meant. The minister, however, did not. The minister asked for a clarification of what he meant by "e-tard" before he went out in to the fray. I interjected and said...they were coming down off an ecstasy high. The janitor was duly surprised and impressed. He said "exactly". The minister said that he woudl go out with him, but perhaps it isn't to be assumed their state.
The minister is not the minister to deal with this type of missions church, but there are a few people who work there that are familiar...they were street and have made some changes to their lives. The congregation as a whole is older (think 65+) and they can not understand the desire of the teen interventions and lunch program, nor would they ever understand the "e-tard" concept.
I got it right away. Does that make me good or bad?
Either way, I have realized that I have come back to a place where I am at a very "gritty" place spiritually (literally). There must be a reason why I am put in to such situations. I haven't figured out exactly why or what it is I'm suppossed to do, but I have been brought to another "street church", so I do want to figure out...why, even if I don't figure out what.
I think it's a good first step forward making that realization this week. Now to figure out what to do next!
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